2 weeks Ago By Simone Carter, , The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.) (TNS),
House Speaker Laurie Jinkins told reporters Thursday that Washington lawmakers may pass a wealth tax after all. The Tacoma Democrat’s comment comes weeks after Gov. Bob Ferguson said that he wouldn’t sign either chambers’ proposed budgets, noting their dependence on a new, untested wealth tax.
The attempt to impose a tax on the state’s richest residents could thrust Washington into uncertain legal territory, the Democrat said April 1. Senate Democrats’ wealth-tax proposal had sought to generate some $4 billion a year. But Ferguson added that he was open to talking about a different number: $100 million annually, an idea that could be tested in court.
Looks like Democrats are taking the governor up on that test-balloon offer. Senate Bill 5797, the upper chamber’s wealth-tax measure, is scheduled for an executive session Friday morning in the Senate Ways and Means Committee. The initial bill, sponsored by Democratic state Sen.
Noel Frame of Seattle, sought to set a tax rate of $10 per $1,000 value on certain financial assets, such as stocks and bonds, over $50 million for the benefit of public schools. This would apply to some 4,300 Washingtonians, lawmakers have said. But a Frame-proposed substitute would reduce the $10 tax rate to 34 cents per $1,000 and redirect tax revenues to the Education Legacy Trust Account rather than the General Fund.
It would also exempt the first $50 million of financial intangible assets. The revised edition would generate about $100 million in revenue per year beginning in 2027. Although this proposal was key to the Senate’s original budget plan, it won’t be a cornerstone in whatever budget lawmakers ultimately adopt in the coming days.
Earlier this week House and Senate Democrats unveiled a new revenue package, one that doesn’t hinge on the wealth tax. “That is actually one that he (Ferguson) has expressed his preferences on, right?” Jinkins said of the wealth tax. “So: limited dollar amount.
We know it’ll be litigated — let it get through litigation — then go from there.” House and Senate Democrats want to try out the parameters that the governor has set, Jinkins said. And this year is one in which lawmakers’ limits are being pushed hard.
“So that’s going to happen to all of us,” she continued. “It’s going to happen to every member of the House, every member of the Senate, me in the speaker role, Senator Pedersen in the majority leader role, and the governor — we’re all going to face that.” She added: “And in the end, we have to do the things that we can do that get 50 votes in the House, 25 in the Senate, and the governor’s office: the governor vote.
” Republican lawmakers have lambasted the wealth-tax proposal. They’ve pointed to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who reportedly saved about $1 billion by moving to Florida because he didn’t have to pay Washington’s tax on capital gains. Senate Minority Leader John Braun of Centralia told reporters Thursday that Ferguson has held a firm stance against the wealth tax.
He called the Senate Democrats’ move to place the proposal in executive session “a little bit surprising.” House Minority Leader Drew Stokesbary of Auburn said in a media availability last month that the wealth tax would more accurately be described as an “innovation tax.” It wouldn’t be good for Washington if that proposal were to pass, he said.
“All of the the economic success the state has enjoyed over the past several decades thanks to companies like Amazon and Microsoft, Washington’s position in that regard will erode extremely quickly,” he said, “as the next Jeff Bezos and the next Bill Gates will look to other states like Florida and Texas to start their new billion-dollar idea and not here in Washington.”.
